Writing labour laws for growing 'gig workers' prove a laborious process

A draft social security law has employers who rely on flexible hiring worried about rising costs

In attempting to rewrite the country’s complex labour law framework, the Indian government is keen to accommodate the interests of the growing gig economy in which millions of workers are involved. So on September 17, the labour and employment ministry put out a third draft of the Code on Social Security Bill, 2019,  in which the terms “gig workers”, “platform workers” and “gig economy” appeared. This essentially means, the government wants some sort of social security protection for gig workers.

Gig workers are usually spoken of in the context of on-demand work, such as drivers for Uber and Ola, delivery people